Angie Moss and her parents lost their home and most of their personal belongings in Badger when it disastrously flooded in 2003.
Now living in Deer Lake, there’s no way she is going to let that happen to her again.
In Badger, ice jams on three rivers sent a deluge of water into the small town. The water from the rivers then froze, encasing a large part of the community in ice.
This week, Moss and her husband, Ryan, have watched the waters of the Humber River creep closer to their home on Bailey’s Avenue in Deer Lake.
Their street is among seven roads where homes were placed under threat of evacuation Tuesday should the river rise much more than it already has.
The water began to recede Wednesday morning, but it was still not low enough to lift the notice issued by the Town of Deer Lake the previous day, which advised residents to be ready to leave their homes.
“I just hope and pray the sump pumps keep keeping the water out,” Angie said as she and her husband surveyed the water pooled in their riverside backyard.
The Mosses have no plans to finish their basement because they know it could easily flood if the river rises too high. They’ve built shelves to put all their keepsakes high and dry, and they have their washer, dryer and hot water tank on platforms to keep them safe.
Fortunately, their pumps have been working to perfection and they have no water in their basement.
While Angie has previously experienced the devastation and heartbreak flooding rivers can cause, Ryan grew up on Bailey’s Avenue and has seen the Humber River this high before.
All the previous high-water situations he has seen, though, were in the spring. This situation is different, with their backyard freezing over and the ice collecting just downstream, threatening to force the dangerous water levels to go even higher.
Ryan has been measuring the water levels with his own homemade gauge in the backyard. It had come down almost an inch within about two hours by noon Wednesday.
“If it stays the way it is, it will gradually run off and eventually freeze in,” he said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t get any worse.”
According to Deer Lake Mayor Dean Ball, the water had dropped about an inch and a half between 10 a.m. and noon Wednesday.
Usually in the spring, when the water creeps into their backyard, the Mosses let their kids kayak around the yard.
They’re looking at this unexpected situation as positively as possible.
“We might get an ice rink out of it,” said Angie.
On the other side of Nicholsville Road, Quintin Dennis had a fantastic view of the weather events of the past few days from a sunroom overlooking the river and the Nicholsville bridge.
He saw the ice rafting up as it collected on the bridge a few days ago.
He also saw that ice and the water levels slowly get closer and closer to his house.
Fortunately, the ice broke up at the bridge and went down the river, but the water still found its way under his fence and into his yard.
“The dogs knew there was something up,” he said. “They were staring at the river and doing their sniffy thing.”
He, too, hopes the worst is over and the water levels will begin to recede, especially before any more warm weather or heavy rain comes.
“We’ve still got quite a ways to go (before the water recedes), but this is the highest we have ever seen it,” said Dennis, who has lived in the house since 2002. “We have never seen it come inside the fence both in the front and back garden.”
